The search for President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor is already causing a ripple in the ranks of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The party’s decision to throw its presidential slot open to all the zones in the country has also made the struggle for the ticket more intense and competitive. In fact, the struggle for the PDP’s presidential ticket is already tearing the party apart.
One of the bigwigs of the party and Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who appears to lead the leaders of the party in the South in the demand for a southern President, was very vociferous in criticising those who seem to be in favour of the presidential candidate emerging from the North.
Wike was recently rumoured to have accepted an offer to be former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, but the Rivers State governor bitterly refuted it.
Speaking in a television programme monitored last week, Wike said he was more qualified than the former Vice President, incumbent Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, APC national leader, Bola Tinubu and others aspiring to be Nigeria’s President in 2023.
He said, “Assuming today I want to run for the office of president, what quality you think I do not have? Why do you think I cannot provide the right leadership for Nigeria to move forward?”
Answering his own question, he asserted, “For somebody of my kind and record, a governor and a minister, I don’t even see anybody who will tell me that he is much more qualified than me. I don’t think that is possible.”
While he has not made a public declaration to run for president, he insisted that “it is not good for anybody to say ‘my aspirant is the best of the aspirants’.”
Also in a statement titled, ‘We’re an asset, not liability to the PDP, Nigeria’ and signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr Kelvin Ebiri, Wike warned the Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, not to assume the position of the PDP in zoning the 2027 presidential slot.
He declared that nobody can undermine the interest of the people of southern Nigeria in the decision over who flies the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Wike, who was said to have made the statement during a meeting of stakeholders of the PDP in Port Harcourt last Tuesday, frowned at those who claim to be traversing the country in consultation with stakeholders over their interest in the presidential race, whereas they are actually declaring their ambition.
He said the South would make a bold statement at the appropriate time so that other Nigerians will know where they stand.
Wike said, “Please, discountenance anything you’re seeing and hearing, especially all those social media posts. The South will make a statement very soon. The day the South makes a statement Nigerians will know that we are not joking.
“It’s not about coming out to say that you are consulting. You are consulting, yet, you have declared your ambition. Is it not after consultation that you declare? You’ve already declared and you say you’re consulting. What are you consulting again?
“Some people take the South for granted, saying that they are not together. No problem. If we didn’t know yesterday, today we know.”
The governor asserted that southern Nigeria, particularly Rivers State, is an enduring asset to the PDP and cannot be treated with levity.
According to Wike, when the people of the South make up their minds to support any person in their party of choice, everything is mobilised to achieve the intended goal.
“We are assets. We are not liability. When we say we are going to support the party, we support the party with everything we have. We are not in America where you do television campaign.
“When we come out, we will choke them. They know it. So, everybody should relax, let the South do its homework and then make a proper statement,” he said.
The Rivers State governor explained that since PDP is an opposition party, what is most tenable now is for its members to work towards the unity of the party, build a greater team spirit and protect it from those who want to sow seeds of discord.
He said that those who thought they could use money to overwhelm the process of internal democracy and buy off the presidential ticket of the party would be disappointed in the end.
“What is necessary now is how the party will be cohesive and the need to make sure that the party gets it right. Then when you threaten that it must be the North, you’re not trying to make peace. Also, when you threaten that it must be South, you’re not trying to make peace.
“It’s a matter of sitting down and trying to understand the situation. That is the way it is supposed to be.’
Meanwhile, Dokpesi’s statement that Atiku will ensure that an Igbo president emerges in 2027 has come under Wike’s hammer.
He expressed his disappointment over Dokpesi’s claim that Atiku Abubakar would hand over to the Igbo after serving for four years as president.
Wike said the issue of handing over to the Igbo would be decided by the party and not by the President.
“At his level, Dokpesi is going on television to tell the people that there is no zoning. I can’t believe this. Even if somebody were to make such a statement, is he the one to say it?
“And he has arrogated the power of the party to himself by saying that when Atiku wins, he will hand over to the South-East. Is that not supposed to be the decision of the party? So the party cannot decide at all becuse Dokpesi has zoned it,” he said.
It would be recalled that the Southern Governors Forum at their last meeting held in Lagos in July 2021 had insisted that the presidency should be zoned to the South in 2023 after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari
Also, recently in Enugu, leaders of the PDP in the South-East warned the party against zoning the presidency to the North. They insisted it was the turn of the South-East to produce the next presidential candidate of the party, stressing that both the South-West and South-South had had their turns.
According to them, the South-East deserves to produce the next president because of its people’s “eminent qualifications and overwhelming contributions to the development of all parts of the federation through the years.”
Southern governors had added that zoning the presidential tickets of parties to the South-East would be “the best way to ensure that we build a nation that leaves nobody or group behind.”
According to Abaribe, the Igbo have all it takes to rule Nigeria and make it better.
Anyim describes the South-East as a good market for presidential material and sees no reason why any other region will want to rob the Igbo of the chance of producing the next president of Nigeria.
Part of the communiqué at the end of the meeting read thus: “The people of the South East have earned the right to occupy the office of President in 2023 on account of their eminent qualifications and overwhelming contributions to the development of all parts of the federation through the years.”
But the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Ibrahim Abdullahi, last Wednesday said the six geo-political zones of the country would be given equal opportunity to seek the party’s ticket for the 2023 Presidential election.
Abdullahi, who stated this when he received Northern Advocates of Good Governance (NAFGG) on behalf of the PDP National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, at the party’s headquarters in Abuja, hinted that the party’s 2023 presidential ticket would be thrown open.
He said, “The new National Working Committee (NWC) under the leadership of Senator Iyorchia Ayu has already resolved that it will ensure that the six geo-political zones are given equal opportunity to contest for the available offices so as to rescue and rebuild Nigeria.”
Political analysts have noted that Wike’s posture shows that the PDP needs to tread with caution on the issue of where the president will come from.
They are also of the opinion that if care is not taken, the issue of where the presidential candidate will come from may cause a problem that may cost the party the 2023 presidency.
To some analysts, the altercation between Wike and Atiku over the presidential ticket is a sign that the coming months may be a tough one for the leaders of the PDP.
It also means that the South is not ready to play second fiddle to the North in 2023. So care must be taken in arriving at an agreement on the presidential candidate without placing any of the regions in a disadvantaged position.
Speaking with THEWILL, a member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP in the South-West, who craved anonymity, said the National Working Committee, NWC of the PDP should thread softly.
“The party is built on zoning. That is the tradition we inherited from our forefathers. It is one of the pillars on which the party stands. That is what has been sustaining this party since 1999. We have been living on ‘turn-by-turn Nigeria Limited’. You cannot drop the zoning policy now when it is the turn of the South-West. Even if you are going to do that, the way the presidential aspirants from the North are going about it arrogantly will disrupt the peace in the party,” he said.
Also speaking with THEWILL, a Public Affairs analyst based in Abuja, Ojo Adeyinka, said that southerners would not want to be treated as second class citizens in a party they had invested in over the years.
“The NWC should seek Solomon’s wisdom in the handling of the ssue of where the presidential candidate of the party will come from. Dumping zoning may spell doom for the party.
“I am old enough to know that in the PDP, when a region produces the National Chairman of the party, the other produces the presidential candidate. So now that the North, through the North-Central, has produced the national chairman, automatically the South should produce the presidential candidate”.
“PDP needs to be careful. They need to apply wisdom in whatever they are doing. There is the need to appease the South, especially the South-East and South-South, which have remained with the PDP over the years,” Adeyinka said.
